Burnout Is Not A Brand Strategy, Babe
Why clinging to “manual = meaningful” is costing you time, taste, and relevance
Set Down the Quill, Shakespeare
I’d like you to imagine for a moment how absurd it would be to walk into a café and watch someone proudly whip out a typewriter because "laptops kill the vibe." I mean cute aesthetic I guess, but brutal workflow, babe.
The same vibe radiates from creatives who brag they're "AI-free", as if dodging modern tools earns instant Nobel laureate status.
I’ll be the first to remind you: we've seen this movie before.
Painters freaked when photography landed; radio hosts panicked over video; your older cousin wept when Spotify murdered their burnt-CD side hustle. Spoiler: every time, the medium changed, the talent pivoted, and the audience moved on.
So let's talk about the latest villain in that rerun: generative AI. Not the sci-fi apocalypse versionmjust the real-life productivity beast most folks still avoid because "the grind is pure." It's giving artisanal suffering.
When I left my role leading social media creative at Ulta, I founded Bemused Studio in 2021 to focus on branding for small businesses. I was confident in my creative processes – the strategic brand development, the visual identity work, the tone and voice crafting that made brands stand out.
But then I discovered AI tools in late 2022, and I saw how they could transform the way creatives work across disciplines. The brand strategist who could analyze market trends in minutes instead of days. The copywriter who could generate twenty headline variations to spark their creativity rather than staring at a blank page. The designer who could rapidly prototype concepts before diving into detailed execution.
I shifted my focus because I could see firsthand how AI could change the game for every creative that gave it a chance. One of my BAIS CAMP studnts initially came to me thinking AI was a threat to their work. Once she’d gone through the course, she'd built an AI workflow that helped her plan (not record, get out of here with that nonsense!) a month's content in an afternoon while keeping her unique voice and strategy intact. She didn't lose control of her brand, she just gained time to make it even stronger.
What I've learned from working with hundreds of creative entrepreneurs is that the resistance isn't really about the tool. It's about fearing we'll lose what makes our work special. But that fear is based on a misunderstanding of what AI actually does.
The Ego Trap: Manual = Magical (Right?)
Humans have a kink for effort. We clap louder for the chef who spent 12 hours simmering stock even if the 30-minute Instant-Pot broth tastes identical. Psychologists call it effort justification: we inflate the value of whatever nearly killed us to create.
Translation: hassle equals halo.
That mindset bleeds straight into creative circles. If a design took three sleep-deprived nights and several existential crises, it must be superior to anything a "soulless bot" could spit out in minutes.
But ask any client staring at a deadline, they don't frame your timecard on the wall, they frame the result.
Here’s the paradox: refusing to touch AI means you literally can’t judge its ceiling. It’s like a music critic who’s only heard one track but still calls Taylor Swift “overrated.” Or a marketer who’s never opened TikTok but swears it’s just Gen Z doing thirst traps.
Ego says, “I’m above it.” Curiosity says, “What if it levels me up?”
One of those builds empires. The other builds excuses.
Receipts or It Didn't Happen
Let’s drag some data into the chat, cause you know what’s how it works. McKinsey’s 2024 State of AI survey found 78% of global companies now run AI in at least one function, up from 55% last year. That’s not a trend; that’s a takeover. Adoption is moving faster than a situationship ghosting once you ask, “So what are we?”
But zoom in, and the ground-floor reality hits different. Pew Research (Feb 2024) found 63% of U.S. workers say they rarely or never use AI at work. Only 16% admit even partial usage.
Translation? Two-thirds of the workforce haven’t even stepped inside the restaurant, but some of them are still out here leaving one-start Yelp reviews like they’ve tasted the whole menu.
Not everyone’s talking smack. But the loudest voices often are. And if you’ve never tried the thing, maybe don’t center yourself in the discourse.
It’s giving “uninformed but unbothered,” and honestly? That combo’s tired.
Need more irony? The U.K.’s own Minister for AI told the BBC she’s never used ChatGPT at work. That’s like a Health Secretary who’s never had a check-up or a Climate Czar commuting in a Hummer limo. Policy without practice? It’s giving cosplay.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn job posts mentioning “AI” jumped 2.2x between Jan 2023 and Jan 2024. Adobe’s 2024 “Future of Creativity” report says 52% of creatives now use AI tools weekly. And Fiverr’s Creative Trends data shows AI-assisted gigs grew 3x last year alone.
So yeah, AI isn’t just coming. It’s already on the damn payroll.
The Time-Spent Scam (Why We Worship the Clock)
The Industrial Revolution didn’t just build factories—it colonized our self-worth. “Hours = value” got branded onto our collective psyche like a cattle tag. Factories paid for sweat, not insight, and we’ve been trauma-bonding with timesheets ever since.
Flash to 2025: creatives still wear all-nighters like war medals, humble-bragging about sleep deprivation as if Carpal Tunnel Syndrome were a MacArthur Genius Grant.
But let’s get brutally honest: humanity has always ditched the slower tool. Not gradually. Not politely. We full-sprint abandoned it. Calculators melted slide rules. Digital cameras vaporized darkrooms. Google slayed the card catalog. Nobody, and I mean nobody, nostalgically yearns for eight-hour library death marches to find one footnote.
Only the performatively analog pretend otherwise.
Here’s the ugly truth: your audience can’t detect how long you suffered to make your masterpiece. They’re not watching the footage of you sifting flour, they’re binging the cake. No one’s handing out extra credit for your 3AM breakdown.
If AI can pre-mix the batter, you’re free to obsess over the frosting, and in this analogy, that’s the flavor, the flair, and the part only your unique experience can deliver. That’s the part that still makes you irreplaceable.
Time stopped equaling talent a long time ago. Taste, perspective, and voice? That’s the real currency now.
Fear Factor: Why the Holdouts Keep Holding Out
Job Displacement Jitters
Yes, some roles will morph or vanish. That’s not fear, that’s physics. But history doesn’t just delete jobs; it remixes and drops new ones. Social media manager wasn’t a thing in 2005, yet now it’s a whole career path with burnout memes and branded hoodies. The trick isn’t to resist the wave. It’s to learn how to surf it before it dunks you in front of your clients and your competition.
Originality Anxiety
“AI will make everything generic!”
Only if you let it. AI is muse, but it’s also a mirror. Feed it bland prompts, get beige results. But give it your weird, your wit, your brand’s secret sauce, and it’ll spit back ideas you didn’t even know to think of. The real threat isn’t sameness. It’s staying stuck in your own head, thinking you’re the only source of genius. Collaboration isn’t a compromise, it’s a fuckin’ flex.
Ethical & Bias Baggage
Yes, bias is baked into the data but that’s because the human species has been bias as long as we’ve been breathing. But opting out doesn’t make you principled, it makes you invisible. If you’re not in the room, the same tech-bro monoculture will keep writing the rules. You want equity? Get in the cockpit. Shape the prompts. Question the defaults. Rewire the system from the inside. Silence doesn’t protect anyone, it just preserves the status quo.
“It’s Cheating” Syndrome
This one’s not about fear, it’s about pride. The belief that using AI is somehow stealing, shortcutting, or skipping the soul work. That if you didn’t suffer for it, it doesn’t count. But if we’re being honest, inspiration has never been clean. Every artist is a remix machine. The difference? AI just makes the remix faster, and more transparent.
You can’t copyright a vibe, a memory, or a moodboard. What matters is the output. If the final product is transformative, it stands. If it’s a lazy copy-paste, that’s not AI’s fault, that’s on the human. And yes, they should face the consequences.
Still not buying it? Cool. But be honest, if you applied that same logic to your own work, how much of it would pass the purity test?
If you’ve ever moodboarded, referenced, sampled, or “took inspo” from someone else’s campaign, you’re already playing the remix game. AI just makes the remix faster and receipts more visible.
So let’s stop blaming the blender for the smoothie. If it tastes like someone else’s recipe, maybe you didn’t add enough of your own flavor.
Dropping the Ego: The Bot-Babe Playbook
Start small. Block 15 minutes on your calendar and call it “Chatbots & Chill.” No pressure, no performance. Just ask GPT to punch holes in your next opinion piece or brainstorm alt headlines. Worst case? You ignore the suggestions. Best case? You dodge a viral clapback thread and spark a new angle you wouldn’t have found on your third cold brew.
For visual creators:
Experiment with the new ChatGPT image generator to whip up mood boards or stock images in minutes, then refine in you design tool of choice. You’ll collapse concept cycles from hours to snack breaks, truly ADHD gold. The time you save? Spend it on the human touches: palette tweaks, Easter eggs, meme references only your real ones will catch. That’s the stuff that makes your work yours.
For knowledge workers and thinkers:
You know those shower epiphanies, voice note rants, or half-baked ideas you text yourself at red lights? That’s gold—if you can catch it. AI can help you turn that chaos into clarity. Whether it’s transcribing your brain dumps, organizing your scattered thoughts, or turning your 2AM rambles into a rough draft, the point isn’t the tool babe, it’s the transfer. You’re not outsourcing your brain, you’re preserving it. Think of it like creative Tupperware: store the brilliance now, season it later.
The point?
AI isn’t here to replace your magic. It’s here to protect it. To give you back the hours you waste on the parts of your process that don’t need your genius. Efficiency isn’t just self-care—it’s brand strategy. And the best brands? They know when to delegate.
Reality Checks (Because Auntie Doesn’t Do Delusion)
AI is not a magic wand. It’s a freakishly bright intern who binge-watched the entire internet and now sits at your desk, caffeinated and clueless, waiting for direction. Leave it unsupervised and it’ll confidently remix Wikipedia with Reddit threads and Urban Dictionary slang. It’s not evil, it’s just untrained. And if you let it publish without your own edits? That’s NOT innovation. That’s brand malpractice.
Creativity still needs a conductor.
Yes, AI can expand your creative toolkit. And yes, with the right training, it can learn your voice, your tone, even your audience’s inside jokes. That’s what I teach in my BAIS CAMP 2.0 course. And that’s the magic. But here’s the truth: even the best-trained bot can’t feel the room. It doesn’t know when a line is off-brand, when a joke won’t land, or when a reference is two years too late. That’s your job. That’s your edge.
AI can draft. You decide what stays. You bring the taste, the timing, the domain expertise that makes the difference between “technically correct” and culturally resonant. Don’t hand the aux cord to a machine and then complain about the playlist. You’re still the DJ. You’re still the headliner. The bot’s just your roadie.
Bottom line?
AI is powerful. But it’s not precious. It’s not sacred. And it’s definitely not sentient. It’s a tool. Use it like one. With intention. With taste. With boundaries. That’s how you stay in control, and stay irreplaceable.
Join the Future or Send a Carrier Pigeon
I dare you: spend 10 measly minutes with a bot this week. Open up your custom instructions in your settings. Give it some details about you, your brand, your audience and your services. Drop in a few of your go-to phrases. If it doesn't claw back at least 30 minutes of your life, DM me "Refund my vibes." I'll mail you a sympathy scarf that I hand-knit, artisanal, zero AI, 100% slower. Hashtag authenticity.
Ready to stop lurking and start building?
→ Join The Launchpad, my free community where almost 1,000 (we’re only 11 away!) AI-curious creatives are sharing wins, fails, prompts, tools, workflows and AI creations. Because learning alone is lame.
→ Get on the BAIS CAMP 2.0 waitlist to learn how to make ChatGPT your brand’s right hands, not just a glorified thesaurus.
→ Book a 1:1 Chatbots and Chill session and let’s build your brand’s AI brain together. Custom, strategic, hands-on and on-brand!
Pick your path. Just don’t pick “do nothing.”
Remember: refusing power tools doesn't make you a purist; it makes you tired. And honey, burnout is not a personality trait. Let the bots slice the onions so you can season the stew. See you in the future, I’ll bring the snacks.
Bots of Love,
Lauren, Your AI Auntie
Share The Love 💌
If this made you feel seen, called-in (not called-out), or just gave you the words you’ve been searching for—share it, tag me @theBemusedStudio, and let your people know you’re not just watching the future happen. You’re fucking building it.